Abstract

Utilizing prism coupling of an argon laser beam into a nonlinear ZnS waveguide we have observed power-dependent optical bistability. We detuned the incidence angle by several linewidths from the optimal low power efficiency case. At this position we observed switching and hysteresis and verified the hysteresis loop to be bistable. The origin of the bistability we tentatively identified as a combination of intensity-dependent absorption and dispersion. Our conditions for bistability were different from those of W. Lukosz et al. in OPTICAL BISTABILITY III (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1986), p. 109.

© 1986 Optical Society of America